Looks like 2025 will be peak Rayo.
Last season’s eighth place brought them European experience in the shape of Conference League, er, glory.
And a visit from North Macedonia hotshots Shkendija, who hail from Tetovo in the east, near the border with Kosovo.
Smash and grab Rayo sneaked past a side with an impeccable European pedigree in a top-drawer statement victory.
The boys from the barrio are beginning to mug established Spanish names – not through a muscular display of bootboy thuggery but with a thoughtful and calm approach.
Superb defence frustrates big names perhaps thinking they’re in for an easy win, and killer goals just at the right time.
![IMG_2945[1]](https://milesfromnowhere.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/img_29451-e1383652060812.jpg?w=450)
Not so much a football match as an outbreak of naked class war.
Rich v poor, city slickers v working class, left wing v right wing. In Spain, supporting a club is often a loaded political stance. Think of Barcelona’s ‘Mas que un club’. This was no different.
Before the match, the Rayo Ultras – known as Bukaneros – unveiled a giant banner that covered the entire Fondo Sur. It read: ‘Somos pobre como orgullo con cojones como punos’ – ‘We are poor, but proud, with testicles like fists’.
Continue reading Hasta la victoria siempre – Rayo Vallecano 2 Real Madrid 3
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